S18 Ep45: Strange shadows, odd animals and a visit from a leprechaun (Sn. 18 Ep. 45)
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Good evening and welcome to Monsters Among Us. I'm your guide, Derek Hayes. Boy, is it good to have you back with us tonight. As we near the end of this, your 18th season of Monsters Among Us. A little reminder that we have that hometown legend finale coming up in just a couple of weeks.

So be sure to get excited for that. The team and I are already hard at work on that one. And there's something else that makes this episode a little bit special. We are only a few short days away from the ninth anniversary of this program. On a dark St. Patrick's Day evening, nearly a decade ago, I sat down in a blanket fort in my downtown Los Angeles garage to record the very first episode of this program.

Now the show has changed a lot since those days, but the core objective remains the same, to share spooky stories with the world. And from episode one to this current episode, number 460, I believe, we've done just that. And of course, that's not going to change here tonight. So what do you say we get started? From the Pacific Northwest, please give a big MAU welcome to Kai.

out of the state of Washington. Hi Derek, this is Kai from Western Washington. So when I was maybe 13 or 14 years old, I was living at home and it was about 2, maybe 3 in the morning and I was in my living room. I was working on an art project and the layout of the house is like if you're sitting on the couch in the living room, you can look straight down the hall and at the very end of the hall is my mother's room. On the left is my sister's room and the

And then on the right is my bedroom and the bathroom. So from where I was sitting, I had a perfect shot right down that hallway. And my older sister was sleeping in her room with her boyfriend at the time. And I was just obsessed with my sister. I loved her. I wanted to share everything with her. So I would occasionally look up in hopes that maybe she would wake up to go to the bathroom and I could show her my art project. And...

At one point, I heard, I don't know, like we had really creaky floors. So I heard some sort of creak and I looked up and the light that I had in the living room was illuminating down the hall. So I could very clearly see all the way to my mom's bedroom door, which was shut. And I hear some movement in my sister's room.

and suddenly I see her cross the hall, clear as day, looked exactly like my sister. She crossed the hall and turned on the bathroom light. And I was like, "Awesome, my sister is awake. I can show her my art project." And I was so excited. So I was just kind of watching down the hall in anticipation of her coming out of the bathroom,

And I waited for a while and I'd never heard the bathroom door shut. It was just the light had turned on. So I figured maybe she wasn't peeing or anything. Maybe she was just doing something else. So I walked down the hall, went into the bathroom and the door was open. The light was on and my sister was not there. A thousand percent, it was my sister who had walked across the hall.

So I was very confused. Didn't even think of like, maybe it was a ghost. It was like, no dude, that's my sister. So I look at her bedroom and her door is shut. I open up her door and I see her and her boyfriend in bed sound asleep. And at this point I'm like putting two and two together of like, well, what did I just see? The hallway that goes all the way down has really creaky floors. And I looked back into the living room and as I turned my head,

the floors creaked further down the hall. And I remember just being so overcome with fear and panic. And I don't know why I chose to run back down the hall to the living room, but I did. And just sat on the couch and I think I just started crying. I was just so scared. I was so confused.

Honestly, my memory of the rest of the night is pretty hazy, but it was really creepy. And I didn't sleep in my room for quite a while. I don't know if you'd consider that doppelganger. Maybe I was very sleepy and saw something, but...

I don't know, dude. The light turned on. It was on when I went in there. And I know for a fact it was off. Like the light switch had moved. It wasn't like an electrical issue. But that's my story. Never been able to explain it, but that's my go-to creepy story to tell around the campfire. Thank you so much, Derek. Thank you, Kai.

You know, it's becoming apparent to me that there isn't much of a difference between these doppelganger stories and these ghost of the living stories that we cover every once in a while. Where someone will see what can be best described as a ghost of someone they know is still alive and well somewhere. Now, the more doppelganger stories I share, the more I'm starting to wonder if there's a dividing line between these two phenomena.

It's one thing to see something that looks like you or just like your friend or your cousin or whatever. We've already proved that scientifically each person has around six doppelgangers somewhere around the world. And you know there are only so many faces that nature can create. But that other type of encounter, encounters like Kai's here, where people swear that it was them they saw. And I should point out that many of these stories like Kai's here

occur inside a locked house. So it's not like a stranger that sort of looked like Kai's sister snuck into the house and climbed out the bathroom window. That probably didn't happen. Now I'm afraid observing this distinction between the two types of doppelgangers is as far as I've thought this through. But that realization has me wondering if I've been labeling some of these stories wrong all along. Regardless, it's a spooky and unsettling tale, Kai.

And we can't thank you enough for kicking us off here tonight. Now, folks, it is break time. We have bills to pay here as well. But fear not, or maybe just fear a little, because I'll be right back with more nightmare-inducing entries. Spring is finally in the air.

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Now we've already heard about a familiar figure walking through a room. Now imagine that same scenario, only this time the entity's identity remains a mystery. Nick from Oregon. Welcome to the program. Hey Derek, this is Nick from Portland, Oregon. One night I woke up.

from a dead sleep because I thought I heard someone step on a LaCroix water bottle that was in my room. A very specific crunch noise. As I looked up, I thought I saw my roommate drunkenly stumbling through my room because that is not an unrealistic thing to happen with a roommate ahead of the time. So what woke me up was the crunch of a water bottle. I looked over and I saw a tall figure bounding through my room.

I said Ryland, which was my roommate's name. And I picked up my phone and I should have hit record, but instead I hit the flashlight button. As I turned on the flashlight, the tall bounding figure I saw walking through my room disappeared and I saw nothing. So I just kind of went back to sleep. But yeah, thank you. Have a good night. Thanks for calling in, Nick. We were this close. This close to a video of one of these shadow figures.

Or I suppose another video of them. Now I can sympathize with Nick here. It's surprisingly difficult to film something in a hurry with your iPhone. I try to catch my cats doing something stupid all the time. And 9 times out of 10 I'm not quick enough to capture it. Now, add fear to the equation. And it's no wonder that you opened the wrong app. But your story is on par with dozens if not hundreds of others just like it, Nick.

So we thank you again for reporting your version. And folks, if you too would like to submit a story for consideration, a true story, call our hotline at 888-608-NIGHT. That's 888-608-N-I-G-H-T. Or record a voice memo on your phone and email it to me at monstersamonguspodcast.com.

And remember the rules. Call from a quiet place. No moving vehicles. Be sure to finish the call even if you have to call back in and pick up where you left off. True tales only. One story per entry. Just to make life easy on Connor and I. So please, keep your stories separated. And of course, above all else, keep them spooky. Now, next up we venture to the show me state.

where Faith intends on showing us a monster. Hi, my name is Faith. I am calling from Springfield, Missouri. So this story happened when I was about 10, 11, 12, something like that.

My mom and I used to do a lot of road trips together, dragging forth from Tennessee to Missouri to Colorado. Well, one of these particular trips, I can't remember where the starting point was, but we were driving through this small town called Nevada, Missouri. A lot of people think it's Nevada, but it's Nevada. And we were coming up along this two-lane road

small road, definitely out in the boonies in the middle of nowhere. This is not a town that has a very high population. And in the very smack dab middle of the road,

We come upon a bull skull. It was just right there in the middle. It was very clean. It looked like it had precisely been placed there. It was really bizarre. And we weren't going very fast because it's one of those roads, but we had to kind of swerve a little bit to miss it.

And we were just like, what in the world was that? And why was it there? And I started to get a really weird feeling. Like, I had seen a lot of movies like Wrong Turn and Hills Have Eyes. And I got scared that, you know, it was placed there by somebody. I don't know. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I was really scared.

We kept driving, and maybe a couple miles later, there is this farm, this pasture to the left of us. At this point, we were driving pretty slow, and I've never been able to know exactly how to describe this. But we saw these two creatures that looked as if they were living in this pasture, and

Like that was just a normal home for them. And I kid you not, they had the body of a horse and the heads of an ostrich. That is the best way I know how to describe them. They were huge. They were towering. My mom and I were just completely in awe. We didn't know what to say.

We just kept saying, what is that? What is that? What are those? What is that? Craziest thing I've ever seen to the point sometimes where my mind can't even wrap around the fact that I saw something like that. It's really hard to remember all of the specific details. It did look like it had fur, not like scales or anything like that.

It did have the wings that kind of like an ostrich has, and they seemed big. I don't recall them having really a tail. It was more of like a rounded off buttocks, if you will. They both had four legs.

and it looked stout like a horse, you know, but then came this really long neck. And I don't know if they were just like an animal that I've never heard about in my entire life. I mean, I've Googled, I've tried to look this up. I've never found anything that looked like this. I remember the heads of it were feathery like an ostrich's. I can't stress that enough that it looked like an ostrich head. And

And I just remember how tall they were. They were so tall and so big. This was literally like 17 to 20 years ago now. And I have never heard any reports about it. I mean, they are out in the middle of nowhere, so it's very well hidden. I have no idea what we saw that afternoon. And I think back on it from time to time and just wonder how things like that

Thank you, Faith. Now, I don't want to insult Faith's animal intelligence here, but it sounds like she might have seen an alpaca or possibly a llama.

Both are pack animals indigenous to South America, but they found a home in farms across the United States. And they do sort of look like a horse with an ostrich's head. But then again, they don't have wings and they don't have feathers either. Now we did do a little bit of digging and there is an exotic animal breeder located there in Nevada. It's called Bushwacker Farms.

And they specialize in, among other things, camels, llamas, alpacas, and emus. But truth be told, we were not able to verify just how long Bushwhackers has been in operation. There's a possibility that this small farm wasn't open at all back then. But Delaney did find a very interesting newspaper article. You guys remember those? From well over 100 years ago.

the following ran in the december 27th 1912 edition of the southwest mail out of nevada a what is it farmer finds skull of unknown animal near mats h.p hutchinson residing about four miles northwest of metz and metz is only about 20 miles from nevada by the way made a find a few weeks ago that is proving quite a mystery the find is in the form of a skull

but whether an animal reptile or a bird has not been determined three physicians examined it closely and shook their heads while local naturalists and scientists versed in everything from the scriptures to seven up are baffled assistant state veterinarian clark of nevada declares it doesn't belong to the domestic species and has no acquaintance of anything of the kind

Mr. Hutchinson at first thought it was a bull moose, but it showed no teeth. He said his hogs rooted it out of the branch that runs east of his house, says the Metz Times. The skull, which was in a fine state of preservation, weighs less than a pound, is a reddish-brown in color, hard as flint, and checked places on it that indicate that it may have been in the ground for a few centuries.

In dimensions, the skull is 4 inches across the forehead and 6 inches from top to eyes. The eyes are on the side instead of the front. The brain cavity is 3 by 4 by 5 and a half inches. And a peculiar thing about it is that no upper jawbone is attached. Now a link to the entire article is in tonight's show notes at MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and by clicking the show notes tab. But spoiler alert.

This gentleman actually blows up the ground where he found this thing with dynamite, in hopes of finding more. You'll have to stay tuned for those updates, however, because that is where the story leaves us. But could this skull be evidence of what Faith said she saw? Is there some half-horse, half-bird creature roaming the hills of Missouri? Or were these simply just misidentifications? Regardless, I love a good animal mystery. So a big thanks, Faith, for taking the time.

Now our next entry comes to us from the Midwest of America, Cesar from Illinois. Welcome to the show. Hey Derek, this is Cesar from Illinois. And my story takes place this past August 20th.

It was a Sunday night, and my nine-year-old daughter and I were driving back from Michigan on I-94, coming back home. It was around 10.20 p.m. that night.

clear, clear sky with a waxing crescent moon that day. And we were driving right around the village of Pawpaw in Michigan. And it's right at that time that as we were driving, we look up to see the moon, which was in a really yellowish orange kind of tone. And both my daughter and I, she also saw this.

We see this oval shape really crossing across the visible part of the moon and then making it really go dark. We were pretty shocked as we couldn't explain what caused it to go completely dark. We did see that particular shape.

And then all of a sudden the ship was gone and the moon was back to normal. But it was a good minute or so that that happened. I'm wondering if anyone saw it that day. Pretty interesting stuff. I don't know if it's a UAP or was just something random. Again, clear sky. All of a sudden the moon goes dark and then it comes back up. Anyhow, hope you're well. Great show. Thank you. Thank you, Cesar.

Well, it was a clear night, so we can assume that it wasn't clouds. And I somehow doubt any known aircraft can cause this effect. Just simply not big enough. Probably not a flock of birds either, but I suppose it could have been. And of course, there are these high altitude balloons that the government was shooting down a few years ago. But at those altitudes, they're not visible with the naked eye. Now we checked the usual places.

the National UFO Reporting Center and MUFON. But no reports similar to Caesar's were made. But the Mitten State is no stranger to UFO reports. In fact, one of the most famous and widely witnessed UFO events to ever have happened occurred there 31 years ago this week. Here is a clip from the Hometown News Channel on this flap. WWMT CBS News 3 out of Kalamazoo.

Phones at News Channel 3 ringing off the hook during the night of March 8th, 1994. We probably had over 50 phone calls and that's not usual. It just got a little bit dark out. We started receiving a couple of calls into the newsroom from people who were saying they were seeing just these bright lights in the sky and that they were moving, you know, back and forth.

back and forth really quick. We talked to, you know, people who had called us. I wasn't really a strong believer. I mean, I believe that there could have been something out there. But when I stepped out here on the patio Tuesday night, it made me a strong believer. There were over about 300 witnesses that MUFON is aware of that saw various colored disks doing erratic maneuvers in the sky. Now, the new version of Unsolved Mysteries also did a feature on the 1994 invasion.

So I don't know, Caesar. I guess it could be any number of things, but one thing I can promise you that it was, was weird. So thank you again for taking the time to share your unsettling encounter. Now folks, I hope you're in a brightly lit place for this next story. Because after you hear Ben's entry out of Kentucky, you'll certainly wish you were. Hey Derek, my name is Ben and I am in Kentucky.

So my wife and I are fans of the show. We recently found it in the last six months and been devouring all the episodes. So keep up the great work. But at her insistence, I am calling in with one of my stories. I've had numerous paranormal experiences throughout my life, but I have one here that might fit an episode related to shadow people. So many years ago, long before I met my wife, I was in a relationship

with a girl that had shadow people that appeared to her. Kind of gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. We were in the early stages of the relationship, and she revealed this to me. And my thought then was, okay, well, you know, I've had paranormal experiences before. I'll roll with it and, you know, be open-minded to it.

Well, she had a couple kids, and one day after dropping them off, we returned to her house and found that all the cabinet doors in the kitchen were wide open. And there's this one specific stuffed animal laying in the floor.

And she looked at the animal and immediately said the name of whatever creature, spirit or shadow figure, whatever you want to refer to it is. That was one they were particularly attached to and that it had opened up the cabinet doors. And I thought, well, this is spooky. This is weird. But OK, I've seen stranger things. So fast forward a little bit.

You know, we're continuing on the relationship. Things are going pretty well. And like I said, she had a couple of kids and I'm just trying to help out around the house. So the kids have gone down for a nap and she's laying down with them. And I thought, well, I'll wash dishes. I'm going to clean up the kitchen for her. And as I'm washing dishes and I know I'm the only one awake at this time.

I hear footsteps, just like a little kid running up behind you that's so excited. Running up, I mean literally, like on your heels. I feel like they're going to step on your heels. And whenever that happened, I turned around and I expected to see the oldest daughter there right behind me. And whenever I did, there was nothing. I'm the only person in the room. I can't see anything else.

So I kind of stepped over to the hallway that led back to the bedrooms. And whenever I looked down the hall, I saw the silhouette of a shadow girl, is the best way I can describe it, stepping into the mother's room. And that was kind of interesting. I felt like she was playing with me. I felt like it was fun for her.

And then there was also kind of a sense of gratitude. I mean, it sounds weird, but she let me see her. My girlfriend could see her just about any time, but she didn't really reveal herself to me until then.

So getting to see that was, you know, interesting. It was cool. It brought about a lot of emotion. And then another similar event, a few months later, we happened to be at my house and it's just the two of us. And we're sitting in my kitchen and I had a neighbor at the time. I had a dog and this was the type of neighbor that kept the dog outside on a leash.

tied off to something and this dog would bark i mean it would just bark relentlessly and that evening it was doing its thing and it was barking and she looked at me and she named the spirit which i don't say its name but she named it she said she's gonna go shut it up

And I sat there, and I'm just looking at her, and it was about five seconds later, that dog went silent. I mean, completely quiet. That's what really caught my attention. I've heard about the sensitivity of dogs and spirits, but that dog shut up, and I didn't hear anything from it the rest of the night. As we're sitting there at my kitchen table, looking at the back door, the door is open, but there's a storm door with glass in it.

And generally at night, you know how you can see your reflection off that glass. Well, I'm sitting there and I've got longer hair and I did not have it pulled back. And she looked at me and said, she likes your hair and wants to play with it. And I said, okay. And I'm watching my reflection in the glass and I see strands of my hair getting lifted up into the air and then dropped back to my head.

And this happens repeatedly. It was at that point in time that I knew that I felt like it kind of liked me. But as most relationships do, ours became stressed over time. I had different interests and she did as well. And it was during that period that this thing decided it didn't really care for me.

And it knew, I think, through a conversation I had with her, that one of my triggers is unnecessary loud noises. So slamming doors, yelling, anything that's unnecessarily loud. Well, fast forward and I'm getting a shower and all of a sudden I hear the door jam just getting flicked back and forth and back and forth. And that drives me crazy. And I had said that.

I also hear a laundry basket getting lifted up into the air and dropped back to the ground. When I get out of the shower and I realize I'm the only person in the house and this thing was apparently making noise trying to get me out of there. That was kind of the icing on the cake. It wasn't because of it that we split up, but it certainly didn't draw me into the relationship any further. So that's just a little spooky story that I have for you.

Thank you, Ben, for calling in. Those pesky shadow people. You never can seem to nail them down. But I did catch some new folklore in Ben's entry. The existence of a shadow girl.

A young female version of these infamous shadow entities. I don't ever recall hearing that description before. I think up until now it's been strictly men. Or men in hats. But then again, he does mention that this little girl wanted to play with his hair. That doesn't sound like shadow entity behavior to me. It's possible that this was just an ordinary, everyday haunting. But when it comes to experiences like that, does the difference even really matter?

But regardless of what they were, Ben, we sure do appreciate you telling us all about them. Now, folks, wouldn't you say it's high time that we heard from a monster? Jacob in Oklahoma. Let's hear all about it.

This is Jacob McDaniel calling from Choctaw County, Oklahoma. Well, this happened about 10 miles down the highway from Salt Creek. And what was happening is I have a family reunion at a lake called Raymond Gary. It's a little man-made lake. It's like an overflow for a creek. It was about 1 a.m.

And I'm laying on a dock, catfishing. I have bells on my poles. About to fall asleep. Well, started hearing a pack of coyote behind me, which would be the north. I heard about two packs over there. And then to my east is a big hill, which is the dam and spillway for the lake. Coyote packs, two over there, three behind me. And I was just like, oh, coyote's starting to sound off.

Bounce off, got something on the third up. They're going off for about five minutes. And then I hear this just guttural. I mean, it wasn't a dog. I know it wasn't a dog. I know what a dog sounds like. Just, oh, oh, oh. And did it three times. Three times in a burst. And about four bursts. Coyotes just shut up after that. Nothing else for the next 30 minutes.

And I'm sitting there. I'm shining a light up into the tree line. I can't see anything. This thing's got me spookin'. I mean, this was not a dog. All the coyotes shut up. Usually when a dog barks at them, they'll hunker down sometimes. And they didn't sound off for the rest of the night. This had me so spooked, I went in my Aunt Chris's car. I locked the door and I slept in her car.

I had a tent set up on the side of the cabin. I did not sleep outside. And I grew up in the woods my whole life. I don't care about weird sounds, but that had me spooked. Well, that's about it for that story. Have a great day or not. Keep it spooky. Bye-bye. Thank you, Jacob. You never want to be on the wrong side of the front door when you hear a sound like that. It's not an ideal situation to be in. And that sound...

The loud deep sustained bellowing. Now you might be quick to discount Jacob's claims. But take a listen to this. A terrifying sound that was captured on video on a muddy hillside. Now imagine yourself fishing in the dark. Minding your own business. And suddenly you hear that. Too loud to be a human. Too deep to be a human. But close enough in proximity that the roar echoes in your ears.

Well, this could very easily happen to you. But no, it wasn't Sasquatch. No, what I think maybe Jacob heard was a bull bellowing off in the distance. Which is exactly what made the sound I just played. If you don't believe me, you can find a link in the show notes to prove it. And I've been there. I've heard that sound somewhere off in the distance and I can see why Jacob would assume it was a monster. But listen, I've been wrong once before.

So it could happen again. Maybe this was an upright hairy beast. After all, Oklahoma is a Bigfoot-heavy state, and that sound does match other reports describing what people believe to be Bigfoot vocalizations. So I suppose that anything is possible. Now between the two options, personally, I'm hoping for the latter. But regardless of what it was, we thank you again, Jacob, for sharing that hair-raising experience.

He does strike me as somebody who's very, what kind of look do you have? Now, folks, I only have a few stories left to share. But don't fret. There are some of my best. And to kick us off, please welcome this anonymous caller from the deserts of Arizona. Hi, I am from Tucson, Arizona. When I was about four years old,

I was living in Oracle, Arizona with my parents. It was shortly before they separated and we were living in this house in Oracle. And Oracle is kind of known for being a little bit haunted. If you've heard of Acadia Ranch, it's pretty haunted. But I don't know, I never knew about this kind of thing as a kid. I would sometimes have trouble sleeping at night and I would go sleep in my parents' room. I don't really remember the things that would give me trouble because I don't have any specific memories of nightmares. Anyways...

One of the nights that I was sleeping in my parents' room, I was laying between them. The doorway was in front of the bed on the other side. And I looked up and the door was open and there was the shape of a man standing in the doorway. But he was standing like akimbo is how you say it, like upright with his chest kind of puffed up and his arms at his waist, standing exactly like Peter Pan would stand.

As a kid, I watched Peter Pan often, and so I think that I kind of associated those two images. The way that the guy was standing and the shadow, I thought it was Peter Pan's shadow. And it was really tall because it was about the height of the doorway. It was just this odd moment, and I stared at it for a second. It was just very opaque.

And I don't really remember, like, if it blinked and disappeared or if I just looked down and didn't really notice it after that.

It wasn't scary to me because it was Peter Pan-shaped. That's why I wasn't like, oh, I got to blink and make this go away. The next morning, I told my mom, like, oh, I saw Peter Pan's shadow in the doorway last night. And she probably brushed it off because, like, Spider-Man was my imaginary friend as a kid. So she probably just thought it was something like that. I didn't literally see Spider-Man. I would just, you know, act like Spider-Man was with me all the time. So she probably thought it was something similar to that because I said it was Peter Pan.

I listen to this podcast with my mom a lot. And so I talked to her about that story again, because I've kind of told the story throughout my life. And she said that that was also the house of her childhood. So she said that growing up in that bedroom, which used to be her mom's bedroom, she would sometimes in the hallway, see things going into the bathroom from that room. She would see shadow figures as well.

I do want to say that the reason that I'm calling about this is because specifically I used to just think that it could have been a shadow figure phenomenon. But the reason that I think that it's not is because the memory is so lodged in my mind specifically as Peter Pan's shadow and to describe it that way is how I've always maintained describing it. It just has me wondering if that could have been because something was presenting itself that way on purpose.

Also, there was another listener who had called in and described seeing sort of a translucent Peter Pan-like figure, and I thought that that was just odd. Another story from that house, when I was sitting on a chair looking out into the hallway at one point, a little shadow cat materialized. It was like just average small cat size. It just kind of like appeared outside.

And it was already walking, but it just suddenly appeared and was walking normally. And then it kind of like walked halfway up the wall at the end of the hall and then disappeared. But it maintained walking completely normally as it appeared and as it walked the vertical surface. It was like it was just...

on the same plane that it was walking before. It was really weird. And I said to my mom, because I was still really young, I was like, mom, mom, I saw like a little cat, a little shadow cat.

And she just was like, oh, you probably just saw Angel. And I was like, no, I didn't see Angel. Angel was our cat at the time. My mom, like I mentioned, also grew up in that house. She had like many, many, many cats lived there throughout her childhood. So it wouldn't surprise me if there was some kitties hanging around there. I don't know. Maybe they're fighting off the shadow people. That place was just a bit odd and we don't live there anymore. But I have been listening to this podcast like incessantly and intently.

it really helps. So, thanks. Thank you, Caller. Peter Pan's Shadow. Now, my first thought here, Caller, is that you experienced something you simply couldn't understand. In this case, an independent moving shadow with no source. And all you had at the time to compare it to was probably a cartoon of Peter Pan. His shadow does move independently in that story and in the Disney film, if I'm not mistaken.

So that's why the memory is so firmly lodged in your brain. Because you've associated the mysterious occurrence with something you likely know very, very well. Of course there is another explanation here. Whenever I hear stories like this, stories that mention a specific character or a strange animal in human clothing, I always associate them with screened memories. Now it's a concept first introduced by neurologist Dr. Sigmund Freud.

Screen memories are distorted or repressed memories that serve as a cover for more significant or emotionally intense experiences, often protecting the individual from psychological discomfort or trauma. Essentially, it's a falsified memory, and apparently this sort of thing is quite common. Freud himself even conjectured that a significant number of childhood memories are in fact screen memories.

and these screen memories can be used to suppress all sorts of negative encounters, traumatizing experiences, abuse, and possibly even alien abduction. There are a growing number of investigators that suggest that there might be a connection here, that these alien abduction victims have had their minds wiped and replaced with synthetic thoughts. Now keep this theory in mind as I share with you these next two entries.

Although something tells me that these little green men are much more down to earth. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone, and happy birthday, MAU. Please welcome Sebastian from Parts Unknown. Good morning. My name is Sebastian. I was just listening to your Christmas special, listening to the story about the stay folk or the gnomes roaming Kansas.

brought up a memory. This one is quite specific to the area I live in, Hays, Kansas, which was a very small town right in the smack dab middle of Kansas. I was about eight or nine years old. My sister was a teenager. This happened to her and I was there and I heard certain things. It was a spring day. It was warm outside and my sister was downstairs washing dishes.

Myself and my mother were upstairs doing something. It was just us three that lived in the house. My sister was washing dishes and all of a sudden we heard her scream. Now, as we're hearing her scream, we heard a small giggle, a small laugh, which was, we didn't know how to explain it. She ran upstairs from washing dishes and this thing, she said it was a

leprechaun is what she called it had came into the back door of our kitchen which the back door was right by where the sink was and apparently had a can of spray paint and it spray painted her hands and was laughing and ran off and that was it my sister was terrified her hands were spray painted white i believe

Thank you, Sebastian. Now, I don't know if we can consider this a screen memory. More like a cover story, possibly.

Some might suggest that the sister accidentally sprayed herself, then created the leprechaun story to get out of trouble. A scapegoat, so to speak. But Sebastian and his mother did hear a strange laugh. And the sister was doing the dishes at the time. So why would she even have spray paint in the first place? Now I will admit that a one-off story like this is one thing. But when it happens twice, that's when we really need to take notice.

So please welcome Shannon from my home state of California. Hi Derek and Sarah. My name is Shannon. I am calling with a story from San Francisco Bay Area, California. This is probably about 1989.

I was probably around 14 years old. I was living with my aunt at the time. This is specifically regarding a green glowing ghost or entity.

It actually made me think of needing to call you with this story when I heard another gentleman's story about a green glowing man that was translucent that him and his friends saw when they were camping and went out for a bike ride on the trails at night. My story is, I woke up around 3 o'clock in the morning to go to the bathroom. I had a nightlight in my room always. That's just kind of how I was. Came back into the bedroom.

went to get into bed and just laying there trying to get comfortable to go back to sleep again. The closet was at the foot of my bed. So I'm just laying there and the closet was probably cracked open around three to six inches or so. And I just, for some reason, kept staring at the closet, trying to focus on going back to sleep. And all of a sudden, this

Very lime green, translucent entity or honestly what it looked like to me was a leprechaun is all I can think of. Whished itself out of the space of the closet, came up to the very end of the bed and started to throw...

Something that was green and glowing as well at the wall. My memory wants to say it was something like a pie. So it would hit the wall and drip down. Well, it started getting all the way up to the edge of the bed. And just, you know, I'm only 14 years old. So it's just started freaking me out because it was just so real and I was so awake.

I hollered for my aunt because I started just freaking out about it. And as soon as I did that, it took off right back into that little space into the closet. And she came in and it went away and there was nothing there. And she chalked it up to, you know, maybe I was asleep and thought I was awake.

I was very, very, very much awake. I know it's a super strange story, but to this day, I will not go to sleep with a closet door cracked open. Just that energy of that green glowing leprechaun or ghost or whatever did not sit with me right. I've never seen it again. I've never had that experience again. I super appreciate your time and love listening to your podcast. You have a great day.

Thank you, Shannon. You know, it sounds like two very similar beings to me. Both seem to be short, glowing green, holding something in their hands, and bursting in and out of a room. Oh, and don't forget that both were described as looking like leprechauns. Now, like we do with a lot of these calls, we did a little digging. And to give credit where credit is due, Delaney found something interesting that I'd never heard before.

Something that not only can explain these sightings, but most if not all of these little people of the forest stories that we hear so often about. It's called Lilliputian Hallucination, which are hallucinations of small humans, animals, or fantasy entities. They're usually visual in nature and are almost always perceived as grounded in one's external environment.

Now these hallucinations manifest in all sorts of visuals. Tiny men, women, children, gnomes, imps, or dwarves. Often strikingly dressed as harlequins, clowns, dancers, soldiers, and peasants. Now what causes this bonkers condition you might ask? Well just common things like migraines, brain injuries, diseases of the eye, or as a side effect to certain medications. How rare is it you might be wondering?

Well, it's actually pretty rare. Estimations are that only 30 to 80 people are affected per 10,000. So your odds are pretty good that you'll never experience this. But what about the fact that Sebastian and his mother heard the laugh? Or how do you explain the spray paint on the sister's hand? And how do you explain all the other reports? Like this one, which was uploaded to the Paranormal subreddit some two years ago.

Around seven years ago when I was staying at my dad's house I woke up in the middle of the night to see what I now believe was a leprechaun. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous, but this experience was so creepy it still gives me the chills to this day. I was sleeping in my bedroom and I woke up facing the left side of my room. In the space about five feet in front of me I saw this small man, maybe three feet tall, dancing in a circle.

Since I'd just woken up, my eyes weren't fully adjusted, so I could only make out the outline of this thing and couldn't see any facial features. He was wearing a top hat and the dancing was really strange and it was hard to describe. The only way I can think of explaining it is that he was hunched over doing an exaggerated tiptoeing motion.

After watching it dance in this short space of time, it suddenly stops dead in its tracks, seems to turn around toward me, and begins coming at me with speed. I screamed and flipped over to the other side of the bed to turn on the light, and when I looked back to the side of the room where it had been, it was gone. And you know there are dozens of calls just like this one, and I've linked to a few of them over in the show notes.

So while you're out there drinking your green beer, wearing your green clothing and pinching people, keep your eyes out for the leprechaun because apparently he's out there. My big thanks to Shannon and Sebastian for helping us celebrate not only St. Patrick's Day, but MAU's birthday as well.

And that's going to do it for this episode. Monsters Among Us podcast is written and produced by me, Derek Hayes. Copyright Red Crow Media. Additional support is provided by Sarah Carter Hayes, Delaney Bowers, and Connor Ryan. All media used in this production has done so under the protection of fair use. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Join us over on YouTube. And leave us a rate and review wherever that sort of thing is possible.

And don't forget, you can catch the show every Saturday evening at 11 p.m. Eastern on the Annex Digital Network. Just visit AnnexNetwork.com to tune in. And finally here this evening, tonight's score was provided by Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse, Co.heMusic, and Carl Casey at White Bat Audio. Now, watch our movie, RegoTriangle.com. Join us on the Beyond.

Patreon, Apple subscriptions, MonstersAmongUsPodcast.com and click the Patreon tab. And above all else, keep it spooky. I'll see you on the other side of this break. In part because of all this...

Did you know that my dad wanted to name me Rusty? Where the production value just isn't as high as I would have expected it to be. Well, folks, tonight's secret entry comes to us from Georgia. Please join me in welcoming Sarah to tonight's show.

Hi, Derek. My name is Sarah, and I'm from West Georgia, a little town called Carrollton. But this story actually takes place in North Georgia around the Rocky Face area, which is close to Chattanooga for those who aren't familiar with that area. I believe this happened around 2009, I

So to give a little context to our area is that it's really mountainous, hence the name Rocky Face. There's a lot of hills, kind of how you would picture North Georgia to look like near Appalachia. Around this time, my sister, I have a twin sister, we decided to go see the new paranormal activity movie in theaters. And so we decided to pick up a late showing. My

My sister and I kind of had a tumultuous relationship at the time. We were fighting and not really getting along. So I thought maybe this would be like a great time for us to spend some quality time together and get to kind of ease the peace between us.

So after we saw the movie, we were getting back super late and we had to go around this really narrow curve when going downhill on this mountain towards our parents' house where we were both staying at the time. Kind of give you some backstory about

A couple months before this happened, there was a really terrible wreck where a woman was killed pretty much on impact trying to enter on a main road from a hidden side road. I believe she was hit by a semi-truck and again, she just died on impact. It was a really terrible accident, really sad accident.

She was a pretty young woman. I believe she even had children. It was a really tragic accident.

So as we're driving back, we have to go around this curve where the incident happened. And I was just kind of messing with my sister because she was kind of in a mood. Again, like I said, we weren't really getting along and she wasn't really talking to me. And so I said, Jessica, look, look, the ghost is going to get you. The ghost of the lady who killed you is going to get you. Was

which was in poor taste. My sister was like, yeah, whatever, shut up. You're just messing with me. Then all of a sudden, the locks on my car started going on and off, on and off, on and off.

And I had mechanical locks on my door. And so it was really strange because they also lit up. I drove a Volkswagen Beetle. And so you had to be using your hands over the locks to be able to be messing with them. So first I thought it was my sister doing it to kind of like mess with me. And without even looking over at first sight of the car that had the locks,

I was like, okay, real funny, Jessica, like cut it out. It's not funny. And she said, yeah, okay. And I was like, wait, are you doing that? And she just kind of looked straight ahead when I looked over at her, didn't like look over at me. And I saw that her hand was not on the lock. Again, like I said, they lit up.

So if her hand was on it, I would have noticed. Of course, my hand was definitely not on the lock because I was driving. So my sister and I sat in silence for the rest of the drive home, which is only a couple more minutes. And the locking and unlocking noise continued for a solid minute after.

And then it stopped. And my sister and I just sat in silence all the way home. When we pulled up to my parents' driveway, I said, okay, Jessica, like, give it up. That was you, right? You were doing that. And she said, no, it was not me.

And I said, oh, wow. Okay. That was weird. And so, like, kind of wonder if that was the ghost of the woman who was tragically killed. And she did not like me using her tragic death, poking fun at it, which I don't blame her because that was very unfortunate to me. So I guess that was her way of saying, don't mess with the dead. Don't make fun of the dead.

My car never did that before or after. I never had any issues with the locks doing that ever again. So I'm just curious if any of your other listeners have had anything similar happen. If they ever kind of poked fun at a ghost and had some kind of mechanical or physical or metaphysical reaction to it. Yeah, hopefully you can use this story. Thanks, bye. Thanks, Sarah. This all makes sense on paper, you know.

The recently deceased accident victim is doing all that they can to ensure that no one else has to endure the tragedy that they did. That, or maybe the ghost is just messing with you. Regardless, we can't thank you enough, Sarah, for the secret entry. Thank you again for calling in. Now folks, if you've enjoyed these stories so far, you're really going to enjoy the back half of tonight's episode.

because it's time to go beyond. The after show we put on each and every Thursday. To join us, just hop on the $5 level on other Patreon or Apple subscriptions, and you'll get access to a whole new world. A world filled with hundreds of additional episodes, thousands of calls, and days worth of content. And it's in the beyond that we share stories like Sabrina's out of the golden state of California.

Hey Derek, it's Sabrina from California. I'm calling in today about a haunted restaurant that I used to work at and live above. The time period that I worked there was in 2021. But let me just start by saying this place was truly ridiculously haunted. Many people experienced things there. There was two apartments on top of the restaurant, I should say. And

There's certain drawbacks to living right above where you work, but it was honestly pretty awesome in a lot of ways. There was two apartments up there. It was me and another gal.

Before I lived up there, the owner's kids lived upstairs, adult children, obviously. They experienced things too. So some of the day-to-day experiences that I would experience were getting locked out, sometimes multiple times a day. There were three different entry points. I was a cook at the restaurant as well. Whenever I'd get off work really late and go on my porch to smoke, I would take my house keys with me because it was likely that I was just going to get locked out there.

And it just really got to be frustrating. And you would hear things and my stuff would go randomly missing and then turn up in completely bizarre places like under the couch, things like that. Things from the bathroom that would end up under the couch or something, you know. Maybe you could chalk that up to just normal everyday things being misplaced. But it all seemed to fit together. One time I was in the kitchen and from the kitchen you could see the back door and it had a glass window above it.

This building was quite old, by the way. It was built in 1907. So anyways, the old window is very dusty. And I saw when I was standing in the kitchen one day that there was the imprint of a very small face instead of...